The Sheriffs of Mystic Falls
by charrrmed
Summary: Summary: Liz Forbes and Bonnie Bennett investigate a new breed of monsters, ghosts, and the ever-present Klaus problem. Contains Bonnie/Jeremy
1. Prologue

****Summary: Liz Forbes and Bonnie Bennett investigate a new breed of monsters, ghosts, and the ever-present Klaus problem.****

******Timeline: Season 3 AU, takes place after the premier, might involve some stories as they played out on screen.******

******A/N: I wrote this on my livejournal after the premier because I couldn't stop daydreaming about Bonnie saving those two women. I've decided that it's a prologue to the story I'm going to tell. The following chapters won't be written like this. I never meant this part to be a fic, but it works well here.  
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**Prologue: Bonnie isn't just visiting family.**

**Imagine...**

Stefan goes to bite down on that woman. She instinctively screams, and then BAM! Anneurysm! He holds his head and goes down. The girls are are in shock, and the one of color looks up, and it's BONNIE! I thought for sure that phone scene would be her last!

Klaus hears the commotion from outside, and he turns to speed into the house but he suddenly can't move. He looks like he wants to cough something up. He's making noises and falls to his knees as water spurts out of his mouth and nose. The camera turns around AND OH SHIT IT'S LUCY! (Omg, Lucy, you're back!)

Klaus is coughing and leaking from every orifice because Lucy is making the water in his body rise. This is either her own idea or she got it from Bonnie who often thought of doing it to Damon back when she was the odd man out. Klaus looks up, and he's surrounded by witches and warlocks. There might be some vampires and werewolves there, but I didn't think that hard.

Klaus didn't hear them from inside the house because vampire hearing only works when the writers want it to

the witches/warlocks casted a spell to thicken the air or something where Klaus and Stef couldn't hear anything outside the house. Or something.

_Background: A couple of weeks after Stefan went with Klaus, Bonnie was talking to either Elena or Jeremy, and she learned of how the reason Elijah came into their lives was because this guy used Craigslist to get in touch with him. Resource! So Bonnie got on Craigslist and posted a short message that read: The Hybrid is here. Klaus. Or she posted a message in the language she uses for the spells. So then she got responses, and one of them was Lucy since she was involved with Katherine and knows of the curse, and there were meetings and get togethers, etc._

_Now in this meeting there is some tension between some of the witches/warlocks and Bonnie because they feel she had an opening to take Klaus out and she didn't, choosing to listen to a mortal who couldn't grasp the magnitude of having the Hybrid in existence. Some wonder if they can trust her to carry out whatever plan they think up._

So then! Bonnie tells the girls to run into the kitchen and stay there. They instead run through the kicthen, out the back door, around the house to the front, and one of them almost gets taken out by a ring of fire! Ooooh damn, the witches and warlocks are fighting Klaus who is somehow holding his own even though he isn't impervious to magic. The producers want to keep him alive, so I'll let them have that. Maybe he's speeding around a lot.

Anyways! Back inside the house. Stefan is surprised to see Bonnie (as are we! she was chatting with Jer a couple of scenes ago!). Stefan says he doesn't want to hurt her. He's feelin' the bloodlust because Bonnie just took away two kills he was looking forward to. Bonnie says, "But you will if you have to, right?" They're circlin' each other, and Bonnie goes, "I know what you've been doing, Stefan. I _know_ all the people you've been killing. What you've been doing to their _bodies_." She looks completely disgusted and disturbed, and kind of in disbelief. Although she's had two months to accpet it, there is still a part that is shocked that this is the same Stefan who once helped her, who once put the safety of her bestie above everything. The same Stefan who disliked what Damon did. And KG is bringing it in this scene.

Stefan doesn't apologize but maybe says something about how he doesn't like being this way. "Incredibly. I wondered what you've been doing all these months. I take it you're not here to bring me back."

"No, Stefan, I'm not. You're a monster." Pain on her face! A smidgen of heartbreak because she knows what he wants to be when he's not like this, but being like this is part of who he is, but it means the loss of innocent lives, and she won't let that stand! THIS PREMIER IS GETTING REAL! IT REALLY LOOKS LIKE THEY'RE GOING TO FIGHT!

Stefan would do something with his cheeks and maybe Bonnie would give a throwback where she says she once saw/felt Stefan's kilings (though not the stitching), but she accepted that he wasn't like that anymore, but now he's back to it, and she's accepting that too. AND THEN THEY START FIGHTING! Now one of two things is happening:

Either Stefan is giving it his all because he doesn't want to die. Or he's half-assing it because he wants to be put out of his misery. Because he knows if he lives it will just mean more opportunities for him to fall off the wagon, and he's tired, tired of holding back, tired of wanting to just step off the wagon, tired of enjoying the fact that he has, TIRED OF LOOKING FORWARD TO THE STEADY STREAMS OF VICTIMS THAT KLAUS WILL GIVE HIM, .

Fight, fight, AND THEN BONNIE SETS HIM ON FIRE! WHAT WILL HAPPEN SINCE ELENA ISN'T HERE TO TELL HER THIS CAN'T BE THEM?

"But Alta," you're asking, "how did she set him on fire if she didn't use water like she did with Ben and Damon." Oh, but she did use water. She used the water inside his body. Burning from the .out. Cruel? For a show that has a head falling off and telling us this man stuck the bodies back together? I don't think so. Plus Stefan was a regular. Great way for him to go out. BUT KLAUS CAN STILL COME HELP!

Nope. Klaus is busy trying to keep _his_ ass afloat. The witches and warlocks are throwing out spell after spell, hurting him, making him scream, pissing him off.

.dying. He's on the floor; he's charred; and he's moaning. Bonnie comes up to him. She swallows at the sight and crouches next to him. Stefan is looking into her eyes, and she sees the thanks. Bonnie says she's sorry. Not for killing him, but for the duality he had to live with. Tyler thought Elena kissing Damon was _messing_ his brain? He don't know nothin' about dealing with hating killing people only when you're _not_ killing people.

Stefan is dying and he's kind of okay and really sad. He went from being the apple of his dad's eye, the one who always did the right thing, to being the one who _hoped_ doing the right thing could erase what he _really_ wanted to do. The one who _clung_ to saying the right thing/doing the right thing in order to diminish this other side of him.

He might think about Elena or he might not. It's been two months, people. Two months of killing and dismembering. But for those who want a shout out to the Epic Love...

Stefan dies with his eyes open. Bonnie swallows and licks her lips. The first vampire she kills is the first vampire she ever saw is the first vampire she ever touched is the first vampire she ever trusted is the first vampire who showed her not all vampires were mindless, dangerous killers.

Outside, the witches and warlocks achieve their goal. They stab Klaus with spelled knives and one uses a syringe to get his blood. One cuts up his skin, because they need it. They need to experiment with different spells and potions that will work in destroying his bloodskinhim. Yes, I'm using Charmed as inspiration.

Now! Klaus knows that the jig is up. He had two months, and now the witches and warlocks know he's broken the curse. They're out to get him. He's got to watch his back because they might be coming from all over the world. Witches in Zimbabwe (shout out) might be more ahead than these witches and might be closer to figuring out a way to kill him. That's why he's trying to get an army/comerades or whatever. Something. I still don't get Klaus'_goal_.

You're proably thinking, "But Alta, how would we know Stefan likes to dismember bodies and then sow them back together if we didn't see him kill those two women?" Because he would have killed the _man_. The werewolf. Instead of torturing him and then Klaus gives him a swift and clean death, Stefan would have killed him (maybe made him suffer like he did one of the women) and then stiched _him_ back together.

So instead of Damon coming in and seeing the women, and then burning them like it ain't no thing, he would have come in that house and seen _Stefan_. Ooooh shiiiiit! THE DAMON STANS WOULD GO CRAZY! I don't know why Bonnie would leave the body there. I would imagine she would ask Lucy to help her bury Stefan. Maybe she'd leave a note and Damon would find it. Either way! Bonnie already told everyone that if she came aross Stefan she would kill him instead of trying to bring him back. So really Damon was in kind of a race against Bonnie to find Stefan.

And of course this would play out much better if (like someone said) this came a little after the Blood Arc instead of there being this wide ass gap.

Anyways! Stefan dying in this way would be soooo much sadder to me than that phone call to Elena (which didn't move me at all). Speaking of that phone call, it would happen between Elena and _Bonnie_. Bonnie would tell Elena she killed Stefan (happy birthday. Lol, Bonnie wouldn't do that), and Elena's reaction would be whatever you choose because I honestly didn't think of it. All I know is that maybe this show could really be about _her_ now instead of her being this emotionally static character who doesn't truly react to the stuff Damon and Stefan do.

And instead of getting shot and kidnapped, Caroline would've gotten a call from Elena on her way out the Lockwood mansion telling her what Bonnie did.

/

**A/N: I'm aiming for this to be a Gen fic. I've never written one of those before. Trust there will be lots of Bonnie. Liz will be at the forefront since this idea started with her. There will be Jeremy. Aaaand everybody else is fair game. But I will _try_.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Living The Stories**

Liz bid goodnight to one of her coworkers and waited for the other woman to get in her car before she headed for her own. She took in the silence of the street illuminated by the light poles and closed her eyes when a warm gust of wind started blowing. Keeping her eyes closed and imagining the cool bed that was waiting for her at home, she continued the familiar path to her car and enjoyed the little uncertainty that came with taking away the sense she relied on the most.

She heard the fast shuffling just before she was tackled sideways to the ground. She screamed in pain when her shoulder hit the asphalt, but she had to shove the spreading pain to the back of her mind because whoever was above her was growling and...drooling? She did not want to think about the liquid that was landing on her cheek instead using all of her might to shove the person off of her. They resisted at first but then gave way. And when she was able to see the man, she realized it wasn't that she had managed to shove him away, it was that he'd chosen to back off.

His eyes were veined and she didn't need much light to know the dark, sloppy smear on his mouth was blood. Vampire. Her adrenaline pumping, she reached for her gun, the one she carried just for them. "Stay where you are!" she tried, and it growled at her, hunched and ready to attack. She fired off three rounds of wooden bullets at his heart, backing up as he advanced. She was wounding him, but he was recovering too quickly. She was shocked at this; she knew vampires were supposed to go down when hit with a wooden bullet to the heart. How old was this one?

She thought of the vervain and stakes she had in the trunk of her squad car. There was no way she'd be able to run and make it there. Her heart sped up and her throat dried when she realized there would be no Damon Salvatore to the rescue this time. Focusing and gripping her gun to make sure it didn't fall out of her trembling hands, she fired another shot at the bridge of his nose and got the result she wanted. It doubled over and gripped it's face, howling in agony (that really _did_ sound like an animalistic howl, she wasn't imagining things). She took off at a run, her feet carrying her as fast is they could while she willed herself to _not_ look back.

Did she park the next block over? She swore it never took her this long to get to her car _walking_. She heard it coming fast behind her just as the car came into view. She once again met concrete when it slammed into her from behind. Breathing hard, her only thought was that she had to turn herself around because she was too vulnerable in this position. With terrible images of the vampire tearing at her back, she moved her left elbow and connected with its head. While it growled, she flipped onto her back and poked its eyes when it recovered.

She realized she'd lost her gun just before he started choking her. She broke his hold by snaking her hands between his arms and breaking them apart with all her strength. The strangest thing happened then. His eyes changed back to normal and he looked at her curiously through bloody eyes. Taking the opportunity, she did something she hoped would work. She kneed him in the groin. She didn't get the chance to escape, however, because that set him off. The howl came back, and his fangs descended again. Fangs and something else, but her mind glossed over it. She needed to find her gun. She needed to reach her car and call for back up.

He reared his head back and she knew he was going to bite her. Her mind flashed to Caroline. She couldn't die here. She couldn't die like this. She was terrified, but the fear didn't paralyze her. He was on all fours which gave her room to scramble back and maybe get away. She didn't care how much he caught her. Little by little, she would reach her car. Her feet were parallel with his chest when he looked. She turned and lunged to her feet, but then she heard car tires screech and what sounded like a wounded dog. She stopped and looked back, dreading that the situation had become complicated. How would she explain this to a civilian? Her fears were unfounded because the person who came out of the driver's side was well-versed in Mystic Falls' secrets.

"Sheriff Forbes?"

Jeremy Gilbert. Matt Donovan with him. Not the kind of back-up she had planned on calling, but they would have to do for now.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked, winded.

"I was giving Matt a ride home. Are you okay?"

"Not really," she said, aware for the first time that her chest was killing her. And there was also the shoulder she had fallen on.

"He's getting up," Matt said hurriedly, running around the back of the car to join them.

She looked around before she remembered she had run from her gun. "I need you two to distract him while I get what I need and call for back up, but be careful!" she said as she took off again. Normally she would be hyper-concerned about their safety, wanting them to let her handle it, but they were all she had right now.

Reaching her car, she first called for back up (while the precinct had people in it, the ones who knew about these things had already gone home) and then popped the trunk.

When she got back, Matt was injured with a tire iron lying next to him, and...the thing was no longer a man. It was, she assumed based on what Caroline had told her, a werewolf, and it had Jeremy in its sights. She now had the wrong poison. Or maybe not. She dropped the vervain syringes, aimed, and shot a round in its side.

Jeremy hurried next to her and picked up the syringes.

"What the heck is it?"

"First guess? A Hydrid. We need to get him quick, because he might get away. He's faster now."

But why wasn't he getting away? She didn't know vampires...Hybrid...could be so persistent. And why had it taken him so long to just kill her? Had he wanted to play with her first? She fired another round which forced him to shift back to human form.

Her stomach suddenly bottomed out when Jeremy bolted from her side. "Jeremy, stop!"

He plunged the syringe into the distracted creature, and she moved, grabbing another from him and emptying it into the struggling man. She heard Matt cough behind her, and hoped he could wait.

She breathed when the man finally passed out. It had taken five syringes. She sagged against the car while Jeremy left to check on Matt.

/

They were there when she made it home. When two officers radioed that they were close, she had told the boys to go home, that they couldn't be there. However it was Caroline who ambushed her as soon as she was in the door.

"Oh my God, _finally_!"

She nodded tiredly, moving as slow as molasses.

"Come on, let's get you to the couch. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." But she cried out when Caroline lifted the arm attached to her bad shoulder.

"Oh my God, okay that's it."

"Caroline!" she chide, wide-awake now that her daughter had picked her up. "Put me down!"

"No. Matt and Jeremy told me what happened, and you're obviously hurt."

She was deposited on the couch and looked at Caroline, shocked and a little embarrassed. And she also wanted to laugh. She looked behind her fretting daughter to see that Matt was sharing a little chuckle with Jeremy. She looked at them unamused, and they sobered up.

"Where does it hurt?"

She sighed and noted the pain in her chest. "I fell on my shoulder when he tackled me, and then again on my chest, but it's fine. I just need to call Tim Voltner."

"_Or_. Instead of waiting for some doctor who's just going to put your arm in a cast and give you pills, I could heal you." She bit her wrist and offered it to her.

Liz looked at the blood and her face scrunched. "I'm not drinking that."

"Are you seriously gonna be like Matt?"

She looked and saw the young man had gauze on his neck where the monster had bitten him.

"Hey it's my first wound since learning about this stuff. I wanna wear it," he justified, doing his best to smile at Liz considering his neck situation and stifly taking a seat in one of the chairs.

She smiled at him. "I think I'll go with that," she told Caroline who's look turned very disapproving.

/

She was lying in bed and thinking the night over when Caroline came in with a vegetable broth. She smiled and said, "Honey, you didn't have to do that. I'm _fine_. Tim patched me up, and-"

"Hush. You're going to drink it so you can feel better."

She sat up with some difficulty and waited. "You're going to feed me?" she said in disbelief.

"Yup. Ah," she instructed that she open her mouth.

"Caroline, I'm not an invalid. It's not like I haven't faced a vampire before."

Caroline lowered the spoon and the bowl. "Really?" she asked curiously.

She inhaled and closed her eyes. "No. Not really. Not like this." She opened her eyes and confessed, "The first vampire I ever encountered...was Logan Fell," she said, thinking back, "First one I ever faced was the one responsible for all the killings last year. Though I guess that was a lie." Caroline had told her all about Damon Salvatore's activities when he had first come to town. Or almost all of them.

When she had asked if he'd ever hurt her, remembering that she dated him for a while, Caroline had said no, swearing that she would have remembered once she became a vampire. Something about her daughter's answer had not sat right with her. She'd had a gut feeling that Caroline was hiding something. Something terrible. The feeling had grown stronger when Caroline had told her to not be his friend now that she knew the truth. She had agreed, desperately hoping that one day she would be comfortable enough to tell her the whole truth.

"And both times it was Damon Salvatore who ultimately took care of it." She was looking at those situations with new eyes. Damon had known those people. "Tonight..."

"You were alone," Caroline finished softly. "If Matt and Jeremy hadn't come-"

"No, don't...think about that," she said, rubbing her daughter's thigh even as her own eyes watered. "I did not commit to dying tonight. You're still stuck with me," she said, smiling.

Caroline didn't fall for it. She set the soup aside and hugged her.

She relaxed in her arms and closed her eyes, knowing how rare this was. "I'm fine," she whispered emotionally. "The first creature I face, and it's a Hybrid."

"And you did pretty damn good," Caroline said proudly, and Liz basked in it. "And what's up with that?" she asked, breaking the hug. "How can there be another Hybrid?"

"You think Klaus is involved?" she asked.

"He has to be. Right? I mean unless there's another curse I don't know about."

"Wait a second," she said, her mind reeling. "This man attacked me. If Klaus made him, wouldn't that mean he's back in Mystic Falls?" That couldn't be. She knew Bonnie had gone after him and Stefan. She was the one who gave her the Tennessee address. Had Klaus left? Had Bonnie missed him? A worse option occurred to her. "Have you heard from Bonnie?"

"Yes, I have," Caroline said soothingly, knowing her mom was about to panic. "I called her after I heard from Elena. She has news she wants to tell you in person."

From Caroline's disturbed expression, she guessed it couldn't be anything good. "Well whatever happened Klaus escaped and he might be in town."

"Well good thing she's coming back tomorrow," Caroline said, picking up the bowl. "So how did it feel? Facing your first vampire, werewolf, Hybrid."

She smiled. "Scary. Very scary. Very...disarming. He was stronger. Faster." She swallowed as she remembered. "He was...better. Everything I did...he recovered quicker than me." He was a hunter, and she was the hunted. As seriously as she took this job, the legacy of her family, as fast as she held to the prejudices and assumptions that had been drilled into her since she was fourteen, tonight was the first time she had lived the stories. Vampires are hunters, predators, humans mean nothing to them, are nothing more to them than a food source. They don't sympathize or empathize. Your pain and fear fuels them. Your pleas mean nothing to them; they would delight in your worst nightmare coming true.

Caroline wasn't like that, and she took her word that there were other vampires that were different, chose to live differently. But that didn't change the facts. Overall, vampires were the predators and humans their favorite prey. On some level, she knew Caroline was capable of being like that monster. Living with her the past two months, she had forgotten that, but that had been one of her thoughts as the monster pinned her down. The potential for Caroline to devolve into that would always be there, and she hoped that this, this resilience and drive that she would have never guessed her little girl possessed would stay with her long after she herself died.

"Ah," she commanded.

Liz took her first spoonful and worked the salty broth down.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Just a warning that I'm most likely going to explore different character pairings (as in hook-ups) in this story, such as Bonnie/Caroline, Bonnie/Caroline/Jeremy, and maybe Jeremy/Tyler. The actual core romantic relationship will stay Bonnie/Jeremy, but there will be variety in the sexual hook-ups.**

**The One Who Killed Stefan**

The looks were not something Bonnie was prepared for when she returned to Mystic Falls. The staring, almost wary. She knew what they were thinking. She killed Stefan. She actually killed Stefan. Stefan would never again set foot in Mystic Falls, and it was all because of her. Elena, Caroline, and even Jeremy looked at her with new eyes. She hadn't been prepared. She had been too focused on seeing Elena again.

The phone call after she had killed Stefan had been short. She'd told her what happened, and Elena hadn't asked any questions. Bonnie had done all the talking, and then she'd said bye, and then she'd hung up, not sure where they stood. When she heard a knock on the door, she couldn't hide her surprise at seeing who was on the other side.

"Hi." She sounded hoarse, and she looked like she'd been crying.

"Hi," Bonnie responded, not sure what to do. She couldn't very well hug her, considering.

"Can I come in?" she asked reluctantly.

"Yeah," she answered quickly, stepping aside.

She watched Elena move to her living room, her arms wrapped around her body as if to keep from falling apart, as if to protect herself. She took a seat, and when she looked up, Bonnie saw a little resentment in her red eyes. "I told you I would do it, Elena," she reminded her softly. "He needed to be stopped."

She shook her head. "You could've just brought him back, Bonnie; you had the power to do it."

Bonnie lifted her chin, her defenses in place. "I didn't want to bring him back."

Elena closed her eyes and swallowed hard.

"You never told me I was right. That those were his victims and not just Klaus'? I never got that phone call from you. Even though you kept updating me on your leads." She couldn't help the bit of accusation that seeped through. It devastated her, the fact that she and Elena were not seeing eye to eye on this, that her best friend had it in her heart to protect a killer. She kept hoping she would snap out of whatever funk she was in, but as she watched her straighten her spine, she knew that wasn't likely.

"He could've been saved," she started, her voice punishing, "It happened before; if you'd just brought him _back_-"

"I stopped him from killing someone," Bonnie stopped her tirade, her own anger rising in response to Elena's. "_Literally_. He was about to bite on this woman, and _I_ stopped him. He was _gone_, Elena. He was a monster."

"How can you _say_ that?" she shot off the couch. "You know what he did, all he's done, all he worked for!"

"Yes I do, and I know what he was _doing_!" She swallowed and watched her friend take in what she'd just said. "I'm not saying...everything you loved about him...everything he did here...didn't happen. I'm saying _this_ was happening. _This_ happened too, Elena. _This_ was him too."

She turned to hide her tears.

"And it had to be stopped."

"I wanted to save him," Elena said tearfully, staring at the entrance to the Bennett's kitchen. "I owed it to him," she said, lifting her shoulders. She'd learned the truth despite Damon's deceit, but it was still hard for her to imagine Stefan killing and dismembering all of those people. Not for the first time, she thought back to the last time she'd seen him. It was a month and a half ago when Klaus had killed her; his despair as he watched her die was etched on her memory. He'd failed to save her, and she'd failed to save him.

"I think he was happy to die," Bonnie said quietly, factually. "He fought me-"

Elena turned to her again.

"But in the end, I think he was happy to go."

"Did he say anything?" She sounded fragile.

"No."

"You look fine. I'm glad you're fine."

And that's all she got. She knew Elena was in mourning, but it cut her deeply that she only commented on her well-being out of politeness. She watched her leave, and she wanted to tell her not to go, she wanted to share this with her, talk about it, _please let this be something we can go through together_. They'd drifted apart before and it had hurt every time, but those instances did not prepare her for this.

She walked to one end of the couch and lightly sat down, placing her elbow on the armrest. Every time, they ended up on opposite sides. She had thought she'd grown used to it. She felt like she should want to cry, but her throat didn't so much as tighten, her eyes didn't so much as glisten. There was only weighing sadness, a sense of loss.

/

"You're back!" Caroline said with less enthusiasm than Bonnie expected.

"Yeah, I am," she responded over her shoulder.

"How's the fam?" she asked once they stopped hugging.

"They're good," she responded, shutting the door behind her. "My dad's still sleeping upstairs."

"Oh," Caroline said, lowering her voice even though she hadn't been speaking loud.

Bonnie smiled.

A brief moment of silence passed as Caroline looked at her. "Wow," she said heavily.

Bonnie hooked her thumbs in the belt loops of her black skinny jeans and gave an affable smile, again feeling like she was being scrutinized.

"How was it?"

For him, not for her. "Fine," she said quietly. "He didn't go down without a fight, I can tell you that. He knew why I was there."

Caroline nodded slowly, and Bonnie looked at the floor.

"Elena hasn't stopped crying."

"Yeah, I saw. She came by fifteen minutes ago. Told me I could've brought him back. I told her I didn't want to," she finished, looking Caroline straight in the eyes. She moved from the door and headed for the couch.

"But feel free to tell me the same thing if you want," she said lightly, though there was a challenging tip to her voice.

Fanning out her light blue polka-dotted sundress, Caroline joined her on the couch. "I'm not gonna tell you the same thing. It's just weird...to think he's dead."

It was weird for her too. "Have you seen Damon?" she asked instead.

She shook her head. "But I know Elena's been at the boarding house a lot."

"I know your mom gave him the address in Tennessee. I left him a note telling him where the body was buried."

"Still weird," Caroline said after a moment. She'd known how determined Bonnie had been to get Stefan, but she also knew she'd wanted to wait until she had a plan to get by Klaus. There was a part of her that had hoped Elena and Damon would find Stefan first. Like Elena, it was hard for her to believe Stefan was capable of such terror. In the past, yes, in the present, no.

"But other than that, did you have a nice rest of summer?" she tried. She realized things were a little awkward between them.

Bonnie exhaled and tried to cushion her answer. "I don't know how much you'll want to hear this, but killing Stefan added up to a _great_ summer. I loved hanging out with my family, don't get me wrong, but there was always _that_ in the back of my mind, the fact that people were dropping left and right, _ripped_ apart. With Stefan dead, I've started to _fix_ this problem. So yeah. The rest of my summer was great. Look," she continued, noting the sadness in her usually optimistic friend's eyes, "Stefan had secrets. He had a _dark_ past, a dark _side_, and the only person who knows what that truly means...is Damon. Not even Elena. Stefan never bothered to tell us. _Neither_ of them told us, and...I guess that was their choice. But it's over now. And I'm _glad_." Her relief was evident.

"He lived. You know? He was happy. He did everything he wanted to, but..." here her thoughts switched from Stefan to Caroline. She stared at her friend and remembered the days months ago after she'd touched her and _felt_ the terror she was newly capable of. "Being a vampire is still a curse. And most curses end in death."

Killing Stefan had been a strange experience. She had had a month and a half to mentally prepare herself for the moment when she would kill him. Before going into the house in Tennessee, she had promised herself that she would not leave until he was dead. Once he was nothing more than a charred corpse, she had felt an odd calm even as the fight against Klaus continued outside. Sadness, relief, and a sense of accomplishment accompanied the calmness. She knew she'd done the right thing. She had spent the summer connecting with witches and warlocks through Craigslist, conferencing with covens on the phone (with Lucy's help), and it had not been a waste of time. They had achieved their goals: Stefan was dead and they had Klaus' flesh and blood. And in the hours that followed the younger Salvatore's death, she had grown proud of herself.

Caroline swallowed thickly. She wondered if Bonnie would ever be capable of coming after her with as much fervor as she had gone after Stefan. Would there be a day when she would see her as nothing more than a vampire that needed to be put down? "Will you miss him at all?"

Bonnie moved her mouth but then tightened it so she could think about her answer. She leaned sideways on the back of the couch and answered, "It's going to be strange to not see him anymore..." she shrugged as she thought back to the man who had assured her the tomb vampires would never get out; the first person who had given her a sense of pride about her grams' crazy ramblings of being a witch. "Part of me wishes things had turned out differently, but," she shrugged again.

She thought about how Stefan was probably the only one of them who wasn't surprised at how things had turned out, how they had ended.

"Well...you might wanna hold off on the mission accomplished, because we have a new problem. A hybrid attacked my mom last night. "

"A what?" she asked, straightening again.

"Have you talked to her yet?"

"No I was gonna call her before you came, to tell her about Stefan."

"Well have you turned on the news?" Caroline asked as if that should have been the first thing Bonnie did.

"No, Caroline, I haven't. What happened? What do you mean a Hybrid-"

"You must have pissed Klaus off by killing Stefan or _something_ because he's _somehow_ made another Hybrid, and he sent him to Mystic Falls. Or maybe _he's_ in Mystic Falls," she suggested, thinking to herself.

"Wait how is that possible?" She and some of the warlocks had questioned the women she'd saved. They had told her that Klaus was looking for their roommate Ray, but they hadn't known why. They _had_ told her that Ray was a werewolf and that they'd given Klaus the location of his usual hangout. Had Klaus managed to find him after getting away? "Is your mom okay?" she asked after Caroline shrugged.

"A little worse for wear, but she's fine. Matt and Jeremy were there too."

"Woah wait, _Jeremy_?" she asked, leaning into Caroline.

"Don't worry, he's fine. Matt's the one who got a bite taken out of his neck."

"_What?_"

"My mom has the guy locked up some place and she wants you to meet her by the precinct."

"Wait, she _caught_ him?" Her mind was spinning. Sheriff Forbes, Jeremy, and _Matt_ faced a Hybrid and came out alive? And Klaus was possibly in Mystic Falls? She knew she was painting a target on her back as well as on the town by going after Klaus, but she had not thought things would get rolling this soon. This is why Klaus and Stefan had been traveling along the east coast? Klaus wanted to make another Hybrid?

Caroline tried not to get impatient at the fact that Bonnie kept answering her with questions. After all, that's what she had sounded like when Matt and Jeremy had told her what happened. "_Yes,_" she strained.

"Okay then I need to meet with everybody," Bonnie said softly and to herself. She felt things were going to get a lot more dangerous.

"I'm gonna miss Stefan," Caroline said softly at the door. He was a huge reason why she was the vampire she was today. He had been a rock, one who always answered her questions and late night phone calls. "But, or _and_," she continued, shaking her head at herself, wondering which was correct for how she felt, "I am proud of you." She grabbed Bonnie's hands. "I know how important this was to you, and I'm glad you did it." She squeezed her hands. "I know it was the right thing to do." Her stomach coiled in dread when she again wondered if killing her would one day be the right thing for Bonnie to do.

/

Thirty minutes later, Bonnie had called Jeremy twice and sent him two texts. She was looking at her phone and frowning as she bounded down the stairs, preparing to call him a third time, when she heard his voice in the kitchen with her dad. Her face lit up and she squeezed her phone in excitement. She started walking lightly on her feet even as she hurried her steps.

"That sounds cool. Yeah, I've only been to Georgia once with my parents-" he was telling her father over turkey sandwiches when she broke into kitchen.

"Jeremy," she said in awe.

He turned from the island and saw her. "Bonnie!" he exclaimed happily, forgetting her father in order to run to her.

"Hi!"

"Alright," Joseph Garnet muttered when his daughter met Jeremy halfway and jumped in his arms.

Bonnie weaved her fingers in his now too-short hair as he bounced her once, and she kissed him. Her mind registered the fact that he'd gotten bulkier, the fact that he had more meat on the shoulders she held on to.

Jeremy cradled her head and deepened the kiss.

Joseph pointedly cleared his throat while tearing some of the crust from his bread.

They broke apart and Bonnie apologized, stepping in front of Jeremy. "Sorry." She was beaming.

"Sorry." Jeremy cleared his throat while wrapping an arm around her waist from his position behind her.

Bonnie interlaced their fingers. "We're just-"

"Uh huh," Joseph finished for her, mildly amused. "Now listen, I have to go wash the car and check the tires-"

"We won't even be here for long," Bonnie interrupted. "I'm gonna meet up with Sheriff Forbes."

That sounded odd, but Joseph decided not to question, figuring Caroline was probably involved.

"Alright," he said, the warning in his voice clear. "No more than half an hour here by yourselves."

Bonnie nodded studiously while Jeremy hoped the man would forget what he just saw. Joseph grabbed his sandwich and left. Seeing that they were in clear view through the entrance of the kitchen, Jeremy pulled Bonnie to the fridge. The magnets poked his back as she smiled broadly at him.

"I do like it even more in person," Bonnie said, running her hands through what was left of his hair.

"You sure?" he questioned, his arms around her waist. Her first words when she had seen his haircut, with an unsure smile on her face, had been _I don't know if I like it_. They'd had many video chats since then where she'd gotten used to it.

"Yeah," she said softly, taking in the changes in his face now that she could touch him.

He leaned down and really kissed her for the first time in a month and a half. The kiss was less eager this time, it was slower, it burned more, there was more yearning, more want (and that had been of their own doing over the course of the separation).

Bonnie roamed his bigger arms, his toner chest, his wider neck, and he massaged her scalp while dancing his fingers on her lower back before sliding them down over her butt.

They broke the kiss and Bonnie savored it, keeping her eyes closed. Jeremy smiled and stroke her cheek. "Hi," she said when she opened her eyes.

"Hi."

She giggled and hid her face in his chest. She remembered the day she'd left for Georgia with her father. It had been two weeks after he had died only to be brought back to life, after John and Jenna's funeral, Stefan's departure, and her failure. She had told him over the phone, of her dad's plan to spend the rest of July and most of August in Georgia with his family. The two had of course been disappointed, having planned to spend the remainder of summer together. She had shocked them both when she had burst into tears while they said goodbye on her driveway.

It had started normal enough, her father was inside giving everything one last look, making sure all windows and doors were locked, and Jeremy had come to see her off. They'd talked idly, of her family, who was going to be there, what they'd be doing, how she would still try to come up with a solution for this Klaus thing, what he'd be doing with the rest of his summer. It had all been fine until he had told her he was going to miss her, not for the first time, and kissed her.

_Her heartbeat went out of control, her stomach dropped, and her chest tightened. Her breath started catching and her eyes watered, and pretty soon she was crying, clutching his t-shirt._

_Jeremy had no idea what to do and the confusion was all over his face. He held her tight and stroke her hair while his own eyes watered. "What's the matter?" he asked, wondering where all of this emotion was coming from._

_"I don't know," she sobbed. She hugged him tighter._

_"Bonnie. It's gonna be okay," he said into her hair, getting an idea what this was about, why his blood suddenly ran cold in his veins. "It's only a month and a couple of weeks. We'll call each other, okay?" He looked at her and a chuckle rushed out of him, and then he started crying. "What is this?" he asked, hugging her again._

_"I don't wanna leave," Bonnie sobbed even as her skin pricked from humiliation. She didn't know what was happening either, why she was suddenly losing control of her emotions. "I don't wanna leave."_

Separation anxiety. She had figured it out later and eventually told him after she'd gotten over her embarrassment. And her fear. Fear that his hold on her was that strong, that he affected her that much, that she was in so deep with him. At the time, it had only been two weeks ago that she'd held him in her arms, faced with the harsh reality that she had lost him forever, the reality that this was where everything ended, where they ended, where magic had once again taken her only to abandon her. And then he'd come back along with promise of a consequence, a debt that she would pay for this privilege she was granted. And the thought of leaving him, of being away from him after two months when the only thing she had been able to count on amid so much uncertainty was him, when they had practically been in their own little bubble, the thought sent her into a quick panic.

And when she had maladroitly explained this to him during a video chat, in much less detail to protect her dignity, Jeremy had felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He'd sat still, staring at her unsure face, watching her smile in order to try and hold in the amount of vulnerability, and he'd fallen for her all over again. And he'd wanted to tell her, to tell her right then and there that he loved her. Instead he'd told her that he wanted her to come home, that he missed her and wanted her back. She'd smiled and joked that the separation was probably good for them, that they couldn't always be attached at the hip. And he'd agreed while telling her that being attached at the hip felt good nevertheless.

Now he told her he missed her.

"I missed you too." She stood on her toes and planted a lingering kiss on his lips.

"Did you get it?" he asked, a little dazed from her kiss.

"Yeah, I got it, and...Stefan's gone." He already knew this. She had called him the night of.

"Are you okay?"

Her face crumpled a little, and she hugged him.

Jeremy was again in the dark, though he readily hugged her back.

"You're the first person who's asked me that." She stroke his cheek and told him, "Elena came by and it was less pretty than when Caroline came by. They're still trying to accept that he's dead."

"How are you doing?"

She shook her head. "I'm happy? I'm moving on? Because I still have Klaus to worry about. He was okay with it. Those people he killed can finally rest in _peace_. They got justice."

He nodded and smiled at her. "I'm proud of you. Guess the _essay_ was completed."

She laughed. That had been their code for the plans to kill Stefan and get Klaus, an essay she was working on.

"Can I see it?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "Wait, um, are you still taking vervain?"

"Yeah."

In order for her to keep him in the know, she had required that he start taking vervain regularly in order to withstand compulsion. She had offered Caroline and Elena the same deal. Elena had taken it; Caroline hadn't, citing her horrific experience with the herb. She did not want to start ingesting it. So Bonnie had placed her on need to know status. She _didn't_ know that Bonnie had been connecting with witches and plotting to get Klaus' blood and flesh. Elena didn't know the part about getting Klaus' blood and flesh, but that was because Bonnie wanted to withhold that from her. But all of that would have to change because Klaus had set his sights back on the town.

She led him to the cramped laundry room and moved some of the folded clothes on the white shelf and reached for a small, brown rectangular box.

"You're keeping it in the laundry room?"

"Yeah, my room's too obvious," she said softly as if someone might hear them. She opened the box and dropped the vial into her palm, and held it out to him.

"That's a lot of blood," he commented, his voice lazy. And the vial was only half full.

"The other witches and warlocks took some of it to work on. You have no idea how far just a drop can go. Apparently, and I guess it isn't surprising, blood magic is a really powerful thing. Lucy said every curse that's meant to harm? Requires it, whether it's from the witch or from the person they're cursing."

"Where is Lucy?"

Bonnie put the blood back in the box and put it away. "Distributing the flesh."

"Yuck."

She chuckled. "She'll be here in a couple of days so we can start experimenting on the blood."

"Nice."

She looked at him wryly and took his hand, leading him out of the laundry room. "You _might_ be able to watch," she flirted.

"You know I'm good at watching," he murmured in her ear, wrapping his upper body around her shorter frame.

Bonnie bit her lip and smiled widely, shivering when he bit her ear. She squirmed and melted as he nibbled it, stroking his arms interlocked around her stomach. They got to the living room, him kissing down her neck, and she turned in his arms, kissing him and walking backwards to the couch. They stopped when her lower back bumped into the arm.

She dropped on it, and he covered her. She welcomed his kisses, giving as good as she was getting, and then she remembered. "Mm!" She shook her head to try and get her bearings while he breathed on top of her.

"What?"

"Did you get my texts? My messages?"

He smiled. "Yeah, but I was coming over, so I figured you could wait a little."

"That's not so funny."

"I figured you'd rather see me than hear me," he defended half-heartedly.

"Mmmm," she moaned when he started nipping her neck. "Tell me."

He put his weight on his elbows and explained how they came upon Liz Forbes. "It was kind of crazy. He just kept coming at us, at her, but at the same time he seemed...dim almost. Single-minded. It was weird. And he was messy, there was blood all over his face. The news report said three bodies were found mauled. Animal attack, they're saying," he said dryly.

Bonnie closed her eyes. "It's Klaus."

"How's he able to make another Hybrid? I thought...I mean he was _born_ like that."

"I don't know," she said, opening her eyes, "but he was looking for a werewolf named Ray when we found him."

"And I think _we've_ found Ray."

She sighed and closed her eyes again. "So much for a boring and mundane summer, huh?"

Jeremy kept quiet at that, remembering how his summer had not been _completely_ boring and mundane. Amidst the happiness at seeing her again, he'd forgotten he was supposed to be figuring out a way to tell her what has been happening to him, what had happened to him this morning. He touched her forehead with his and said, "We'll get through it," and kissed her.

"Hoh, you are _crazy_ if you think I'm gonna stand here and just watch you two."

Bonnie's eyes flew open when she felt him jerk off of her. The question she was about to ask died on her lips when she saw him staring intently somewhere behind the arm of the couch. She shot up in a little panic and looked back but saw nothing.

Jeremy cleared his throat, his heart pounding, and he tried hard to mask his shock.

"What?" she asked when she turned back to him, her eyes a little wide, a small and confused smile on her lips.

"Nothing," he said without thinking. He focused on her green eyes and tried to ignore the fact that Vicky Donovan was standing this close to them. "It's nothing," he shook his head. "Um-"

"Okay then," she cut him off and pulled him back down with her.

Jeremy tried to talk through the kiss, blinking and attempting to think of something, but Bonnie was insistent.

"Oh Jeremy," Vicky sing-songed.

He again jumped from her when the lamp on the side table crashed to the floor. Vicky had moved to the other end of the couch.

"What the heck was that?" Bonnie asked, moving out from under him. She walked to the mess on the floor and looked at him for answers, her mind having registered the fact that he'd immediately looked behind him when the lamp fell to the floor in way that wasn't normal. And now he was shooting daggers at a spot to her right. "Jeremy?" she tried, stepping to her left and feeling out of sorts.

"I'm sorry," he said, getting off the couch and joining her.

"What...what was that? What just happened?" she asked, looking at the broken lamp. It had landed too far from the side table to have simply fallen off. It looked like it had been swiped off of it.

Jeremy looked at Vicky who smirked and raised her eyebrows. For days he'd been wanting to see her, calling her name, and _now_ she appears?

"Jeremy," Bonnie said sternly, shaking him a little. "What are you staring at?" she questioned, looking at the empty space.

He swallowed and looked at her. "I'm...I'm looking at Vicky. Donovan."

Bonnie waited for him to make sense.

"Her ghost. She's standing-" But Vicky had disappeared. "She was standing right there. I don't know how, but I can see her. I can hear her." And he waited for her to say something.

Bonnie looked away from the space that had always been empty. "What?" She chortled in confusion, and he grabbed her hands and led her to the couch.

"When you brought me back from the dead, I started seeing ghosts. Two of them, Vicky and Anna. Remember when I told you I was feeling weird? It went away after they appeared. And they've been appearing all summer, and I have no idea why."

"Jeremy...you can't see ghosts," she said softly.

Jeremy laughed. "You're telling me? But I can see them, Bonnie. Look," he said, getting excited. "Vicky said she wasn't just gonna stand there and watch us make out. But then you started kissing me again, so she threw the lamp off the table. Just to be annoying. And she said she needed help. Not now, but...I've been trying to contact her again, and she didn't reappear until today. I talked to Anna this morning."

Bonnie closed her eyes and tried to process what he was saying.

"You said mortals can't see ghosts." He swallowed.

"Not...unless the ghosts _really_ want them to, and even then..." she shook her head.

"Maybe this is the consequence the witches told you about."

Bonnie took her hands back and stared at him. "You've been seeing ghosts since I've been gone?"

"Since before you were gone," he confessed, "I saw them twice after you brought me back, but then I thought I was just seeing things."

"And the next month and a half?" she asked, dumbfounded.

Jeremy ruffled the back of his head, looking down, not having any explanation that sounded good even to him. He settled on, "I didn't think it was a big deal."

"You didn't think seeing things no one else could was a big deal."

"I thought it would go away."

She furrowed her brows, "Those times you sounded or...looked distracted," she started thoughtfully, "Those times when I'd ask you what was wrong, and you said nothing...you were lying," she realized.

He worked his mouth and nodded.

"If it wasn't such a bid deal, then why didn't you just tell me? Especially since you think it's a consequence of the spell that brought you _back_." Her voice was getting stronger, the confusion ebbing.

"No, I only figured that out this morning, after I talked to Anna," he hurriedly clarified.

"Who's Anna?" she asked a bit impatiently.

"My ex-girlfriend. The one who...kidnapped you? The one uncle John...killed." It felt strange to bring up his uncle's cruelty now that the man was dead himself.

Bonnie remembered. The last person she ever expected to come back into her life. "Why are you seeing her?"

"I have no idea. But she's been trying to contact me for days and she finally got through this morning. She says she's been calling my name, but I haven't been able to see or hear her." He realized he was talking way too fast, but he couldn't help it. She was too calm, too quiet, and still looked too confused. It made him uncomfortable.

"What does she want? What does Vicky want?"

"Vicky says she needs my help, and then _Anna_ told me not to trust her. And I hadn't seen either of them until today."

Bonnie tried to figure out what this had to do with bringing him back to life. His ex-girlfriends? She had been waiting for the world to fall apart or something and instead she was being hit with his ex-girlfriends?

"I was planning on telling you. I was trying to figure out a way to say it."

"Well, I guess I have Vicky to thank for giving you the push you needed," she said, her voice ladled with sarcasm.

"Matt knows," he revealed.

Bonnie stopped at that. "You told Matt but you didn't tell me?"

"I had to," he said without thinking. "I mean I _didn't_ have to-"

She didn't budge, just waited for him to get out of it.

He started over, speaking slower. "He heard me say Vicky's name, and he brought it up again. So I told him. He didn't believe me, but he does now."

She nodded slowly. "That's good. I, uh, I have to meet Sheriff Forbes."

Jeremy watched her go upstairs to get her things, and he decided to clean up the broken lamp.

"I was going to tell you, I _swear_," he said when she came back down.

Bonnie gave the house a once-over before heading for the door.

"You're mad," he decided, holding the door open while she fished out her keys.

"I'm processing," she said curtly.

"Bonnie, I promise-"

"I heard you the first time," she said, locking the door. She faced him and sighed. "I have to go meet Ms. Forbes about Stefan, Klaus, and this Hybrid stuff, so...I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Yeah," he said despondently, unsure if she was mad, or just processing, or still confused, or a combination of all three.

She looked at him for a second and then kissed him and left.


End file.
